Artwork Description

Title: Mystic Waves
Artist: Yan Yi
Date: 2015
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 23.6 x 23.6 in (60 x 60 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
Mystic Waves is a luminous circular oil painting by contemporary artist Yan Yi, created in 2015. The composition features a dreamlike eruption of color and motion, centered on a violet-hued mountain peak releasing diaphanous clouds into a radiant celestial sky. The round format accentuates the cosmic rhythm of the scene, while the palette of purples, pinks, and blues evokes a meditative serenity. The soft blending of oil pigments and cloudlike textures suggest both geological and emotional transformation.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
Yan Yi’s signature synthesis of surrealist poetics and abstract expressionism is on full display in this work. Her technique draws from traditions of ethereal figuration while incorporating a distinctly contemporary lens on mood and motion. Reminiscent of the spiritual abstraction of artists such as Helen Frankenthaler or the emotive dreamscapes of Agnes Pelton, Yan Yi's work embodies a quiet yet powerful transcendence rooted in atmospheric depth and intuitive mark-making.

3. Historical Context
Painted in 2015, Mystic Waves reflects a broader movement in 21st-century Chinese art toward spiritual and metaphysical introspection. As many artists in China sought new paths of expression beyond realism and propaganda, Yan Yi emerged with a distinctly introspective voice, using cosmic and natural symbolism to explore the unseen—memory, emotion, and elemental energy. This period marked an aesthetic shift in contemporary Chinese painting from external critique to inner contemplation.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The artwork is in very good condition. The paint surface is stable and retains its original luster, with no signs of craquelure, loss, or abrasion. The canvas is taut and professionally mounted. No conservation is required at this time.

6. Artistic Significance
Mystic Waves exemplifies Yan Yi’s mature visual language—one that melds cosmic symbolism with painterly subtlety. The work’s circular format and gently erupting composition convey a meditative sense of unity and transformation. As part of her ongoing exploration of the sublime in nature, this piece adds dimension to the artist’s growing acclaim and contributes to a wider narrative of transcendental abstraction in the post-2000 Chinese art scene.